Kamala Harris Compares Alabama Abortion Law To ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’

To Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), the truth out of Alabama seems stranger than fiction.

In response to the state’s Senate passing the country’s strictest abortion bill on Tuesday, Harris sent a fundraising email in which she asked people to organizations that provide money for abortion service and fight for reproductive rights — rather than her own campaign. She also compared the bill to the Margaret Atwood novel and Hulu series “The Handmaid’s Tale,” in which fertile women are enslaved, raped and forced to birth babies for childless couples.

“This isn’t a scene from The Handmaid’s Tale,” Harris wrote Wednesday. “This is happening in Alabama — in our country — in the year 2019.”

The senator criticized state lawmakers who voted to pass the Human Life Protection Act, which, if signed in to law, would make performing an abortion at any stage of pregnancy a felony offense. The only exception is if the pregnancy threatens the life of the pregnant woman. Doctors could be sentenced to up to 99 years in prison if they performed the procedure.

“This is a blatant attack on Roe v. Wade,” Harris said in her email. “It is a direct attack on women across our country. Restricting access to safe, legal abortion puts women’s lives at risk.”

"This isn't a scene from The Handmaid's Tale. This is happening in Alabama — in our country — in the year 2019."

Kamala Harris is fundraising — for abortion-rights groups rather than her own campaign — amid the Alabama furor. pic.twitter.com/j4wl3nmDOw

People on Twitter also compared the measure to the dystopian novel, and “The Handmaid’s Tale” began to trend on the social media platform on Wednesday. Check out their responses below.

The argument that women should be forced to give birth so childless couples can have babies is beyond gross. That is literally the point of “The Handmaid’s Tale”: Women are reduced to incubators who serve no other purpose than growing babies.

if you’re a man and you think that The Handmaid’s Tale is a well-crafted show but maybe not the best way for a modern society to operate then it’s a really good time to start speaking out against the current war on women’s bodies/minds. we need your allyship.

The argument that women should be forced to give birth so childless couples can have babies is beyond gross. That is literally the point of “The Handmaid’s Tale”: Women are reduced to incubators who serve no other purpose than growing babies.